009_20250508008_20250204# Overview
Player Characters
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Sessions
| File | Summary |
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| 001_20240601 | A group of unlikely wanna-be Mercs rendevous at a shady subcontractor for MercNet, hoping to get a profile created on the illustrious privateering site. Paired with a Senior Operative, the group is sent off to the spaceport to find a pilot waiting to take them to the last known location of Cookie's ship - lost by the previous group of Mercs he was vetting. After a somewhat bumpy ride to their destination, the group performs some risky zero-G maneuvers to cross the distance of open space between their transport and target, arriving to the CMS Last Hope with a thud. Attempting a stealthy entry, the group is discovered by the small cadre of space goblins that are in the cargo bay, causing an ensuing battle to break out and starting the group's first test as a Merc Squad. |
| 002_20240630 | Amidst a blaring ship alarm and whisps of smoke, the group stands in the now ruined cargo bay of the CMS Last Hope, moving quickly to secure the area before moving further into the ship. A clever application of hacking and a cunning plan in which Baloo bravely takes all of the damage so everyone else can retaliate see the group securing the bridge of the ship, though not without some collateral damage in the process. The now malfunctioning navigation console sees the ship making a wild FTL jump with no destination in check. As the group begins to quickly discuss their options, Greg simply kills the engine and through cosmic luck or happenstance manage to not drop out of FTL in the middle of a star. After some communications and deliberations, the group finds themselves speeding off towards the planet Hemia to deliver the newly secured ship to a shady contact known as Zisk ^summary |
| 003_20240721 | Bolstered by their recent success in their first mission and their official induction into MercNet, our group of stalwart mercenaries speed off to the mining planet Hemia to meet with their new contact. Landing with no issue despite the large scale mining operation, the group makes their way through customs and off to a bar named the Rusted Nebula. After immersing themselves in the local talent in the Rusted Nebula and speaking briefly with the local crimeboss known only as Zisk, the group finds themselves caught in some street gang warfare, with the entire bar finding itself under attack from a group of thugs. After a quick round of negotiations with Zisk, the group clears the bar of the threat and sets fire to it as they leave. |
| 004_20240908 | After an eventful night of good food and bad booty calls, the group speeds off towards the Two Moon Mining Platform. Assaulted by a pair of trucks en route, the group has to fight them off in a winding zero-g car chase, eventually coming out the victor and with another vehicle to their name. Clever wordplay and stealth sees the group into the mining platform where they begin their mission, making their way to the central mainframe to upload a nasty virus in completion of an 'optional' task of their mission. With the mainframe infected, the group goes to the tether station to further sabotage the station, fulfilling their criteria of their current contract. With alarms blaring and the station itself beginning to shudder, the group manages to bluff their way back off the station, all the way down the space elevator to the relative saftey of their truck. Congratulating each other on a job well done, the group speeds back off towards the main space port of Hemia, one massive, now slack, mining station tether cable drifting slowly away behind them |
| 006_20241103 | Their seeds of mistrust sewn confidently into the Blood Nebula Crew's innermost circle, the party heads to the Blood Nebula with self preservation - and credits - on their mind. Arriving to an encrypted communication asking to meet, the group warily lands on the asteroid base, being met with a single representatives of one of the various factions of pirates that exists in the aftermath of Fry's sabotage. Following their mysterious guide known only as Cog, the group meets with Zolgar, the pirate spymaster, and his cadre of Ninja Orcs. After some back and forth negotation, a deal is struck between the group and Zolgar, offering a portion of the ongoing profits of the Blood Nebula Crew as well as access to his men and resources in exchange for helping him secure the rest of the base. With new allies at their side, the group pushes forward in the pirate base, coming to the penultimate showdown in the main living area between the other disparate pirate factions vying for control. Utilizing their loaned out Orc Ninjas, the group manages to overwhelm Mogram and Urka, slaughtering their respective bodyguards. The group only found a moment's respite, however, as the previously closed door on the other side of the room is ripped off it's hinges, revealing the towering, monstrous form of Gorvash himself. |
| 005_20241013 | Returning to the space port triumphant, the group dubs their newly acquired ship the Planet Express, making their way towards it to leave the planet. En-route to the ship the group is beset by a set of Orc Pirates attempting to collect a bounty put on their head by the Two Moons Conglomerate. After an intense struggle in the plaza of the space port, culminating in point blank grenade detonation as a last ditch effort to survive being crushed to death by the leader of the kill squad, the group is able to board their ship and take off from the planet, narrowly avoiding peacekeeping forces that were warping to Hemia to deal with the mining platform situation. With access to one of their data pads and their entire communication network, the group comes up with a cunning plan to take out the pirates and claim the bounty on their head, as well as faking their own deaths to the Two Moons Conglomerate and collecting those bounties as well. Using their access to the Blood Nebula Crew's network, Fry uncovers much of the crew's dirty secrets, exposing several scandals and affairs to the entire clan - hoping to cause much chaos and confusion before they arrive. |
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Corporations
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People
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Places
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Technologies
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| MercNet | I dunno boss. A piece of soft that's installed on virtually every deck across the galaxy? Seems like a recipe for trouble to me. Vortex has some pretty stiff firewalls but the MercNet ecosystem itself seems like it would be pretty easy to crack... If you were in to that sort of thing |
Bestiary
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Custom rules
History
A few Millenia ago, the fledgling spacefaring races of the Crux Palioxis Galaxy found themselves receiving a galaxy wide broadcast - a set of encrypted coordinates. Rushing to be the first to discover what it was, the various races worked on their own to decrypt the coordinates and be the first to stake a claim.
Finding an ancient structure of some kind tethered at the edge of the galaxy, an inevitable war broke out amongst the races to see who could control the newly found Epoch Gate. The resulting war lasted nearly 4 decades, ending only when a threat from the other side of the galaxy began to invade - an unstoppable hive mind known as The Swarm.
Working together under a treaty known as the Epoch Charter, the sentient races of the galaxy united to activate the Epoch Gate, leading to the first inter-galactic explorers discovering the Astraeus Galaxy. With their last hope of survival in the hands of the combined military might, the Epoch Charter signatories fled through the epoch gate to begin to colonize and settle this new, seemingly uninhabited galaxy.
The destruction of the Epoch Gate some time later left the settlements of Astraeus stranded and cut off from each other, more-so because the explosion that took out the gate seemed to effect subspace as a whole, making it a difficult and unreliable means of transportation.
For several centuries colonies and star systems developed independently of each other, having trade and contact only with what systems they happened to still have reliable means of subspace travel to. Corporations became the rulers of all, with commerce becoming the singular driving factor across Astraeus. Out of this dust several mega corporations rose, the most prominent of which was Vortex Technologies, who pioneered and created Union Station.
Union Station, holding within it the main activation crystal from the now destroyed Epoch Gate, became the nexus for which all subspace travel - and subsequently commerce - would happen. The next century was a prosperous one, with corporations becoming more prevalent, and entire swaths of the galaxy settled and expanded upon.
Around this time the Vesk Sovereignty was discovered, shortly after which they managed to get their hands on a subspace drive and invaded the core systems and Union Station itself. Banding together to form a central leadership in the form of the Concordant Alliance, the board of directors - elected by the shareholders of the 12 largest corporations - established a private military peacekeeping force known as Concord. The combined might of the galactic super powers managed to drive back the Vesk Sovereignty until a ceasefire treaty was signed.
After the end of the Vesk war, with their peoples now integrated into Concord space, Vortex Technologies founded MercNet, which would go on to be the ubiquitous platform from which nearly all media was consumed. Peace never lasts, and eventually a civil war broke out with Concord space that led to the succession of a large number of star systems, eventually culminating into the formation of the Federation of Allied Planets, a coalition of free planets that had sovereignty over their own soil and owed allegiance to no one else.
Near this time, the Epoch Technocracy makes contact - a cluster of systems controlled by sentient synthetic life, ruled by the true AI that was created to handle the hive invasion near the Epoch Gate. Seeing them as a threat, Concord quarantined that sector of the galaxy, even though the Technocracy showed no signs or intentions of expanding further inward to the galaxy.
Eventually, the Hive returned, and despite Concord's best weaponry, began to encroach further into the system again. Deciding to reach out for allies, and together with the Vesk Sovereignty, Epoch Technocracy, and Federation of Allied Planets, have managed to push back and hold the hive to a small cluster of systems in the northwest quadrant of the Galaxy.
Today the Astraeus galaxy exists in relative piece, with the Swarm confined to their quadrants, and tentative treaties between the various galaxy factions. Astraeus exists as a galaxy where profit reigns supreme, where the value of a life is measured in credits and ROI, but for those with the want or need, there are limitless opportunities to make a name for yourself and leave a legacy across the cosmos.
The Factions
The Concordant Alliance
Rules by a board of directors, elected by the shareholders of the 12 largest corporations, The Concordant Alliance is the strongest faction in the Galaxy aside from the Trask Imperium. Even where Concord doesn't have reach, their subsidiary platform MercNet - operated by Vortex Technologies - has seeped into every inch of the galaxy and exists as a monopoly.
The Vesk Sovereignty
Ruthless and warlike, the Vesk Sovereignty is a wild and untamed stretch of starts that the Vesk have 'colonized'. Under a tentative peace treaty with Concord, many Vesk still resent the other races for beating them back and halting their mission of conquest. Despite this, Vesk can be found in nearly every corner of the Galaxy, and are often seen anywhere there might be trouble as either body guards, or instigators, depending on who paid the most coin.
The Federation of Allied Planets
The Federation is a 'free' sector, consisting of thousands of independently managed systems. While they are not subject to laws or taxes of concord, neither are they subject to the protection, which has led to a rather sizable population of criminals and scoundrels. Despite the rough and tumble systems in the Federation, the inhabitants consider themselves truly free, and are willing to go to great lengths to protect that freedom.
The Epoch Technocracy
Comprised entirely of Sentient Synthetic life forms of all shapes and sizes, and ruled by the now defunct MACRO AI developed before the collapse of the epoch gate, the Technocracy simply want to be accepted and recognized as a true sentient species. Though, while many do not harbor any ill-will towards the organics that view them with distrust and suspicion, there is a growing consensus amongst the Technocracy that the only way to secure their livelyhood and status is through conflict and bloodshed.
The Trask Imperium
Not much is known about the Imperium. The seemingly ancient and massively technologically advanced civilization of the Imperium already existed when Astraeus was first settled, and every attempt to breach into their borders - be it for hostility, trade, or simple recon - has been met with a swift and merciless response. As such, Concord establishes an exclusion zone around Imperium space, prevent the hapless from venturing within, and keeping an eye on the apparently dormant civilization incase they decide to wake.
The Swarm
Pushed back to a small corner of the galaxy known as Hive space, the Swarm continously sends out waves of invasion fleets to smash agains the wall that Concord and its allies have erected. Possessing no apparently Faster-than-light travel capabilities, they are all but securely quarantined, and as such have been nearly forgotten by the rest of the Galaxy.
Key Locations
Union Station
Perhaps the most important location in the galaxy, Union Station sits anchored just at the edge of the accretion disk of the black hole in the center of the galaxy, Union Station houses within it the main sequence subspace crystal from the Epoch Gate. Because of this, a trip through subspace can reach Union station from anywhere in the galaxy within 7 days. The surety of travel means that Union station has become the seat of power in the galaxy, and is the wellspring from which nearly all trade flows. It's often said that every credit chip and manufactured good has come through Union Station at some point.
The Garus Strip
Existing between two arms of the Galaxy, in the space between the Federation of Allied Planets and Concord space, The Garus Strip is a light-years long stretch of planetary debris that contains millions of asteroids and planetoids, the Garus Strip is a haven for criminal activity due to them being completely outside the various factions. Regardless of the dangers, many millions of inhabits stretch across the strip, as those with the right conviction can work completely unfettered.
Key Technologies
FTL Drives
A large number of different faster-than-light travel drives exist, but few are as inexpensive and cheap as a subspace drive. By utilizing a pocket dimension between planes of existance, Subspace drives allow people to travel across the galaxy without crossing the interveining distance.
Unfortunately since the destruction of the Epoch Gate, Subspace travel has become unpredictable. There are specific Subspace travel lines that are more predictable, but an uncalculated subspace jump can end in ruin if you are not careful.
MercNet
Social Media Platform, Job Board, digital marketplace, Operating system, AI... MercNet exists as a widespread invasive system across the entire galaxy. Enabling interstellar communication, the posting and acceptance of jobs, and a myriad of other benefits, MercNet has become THE united platform across the entire galaxy.
To honor their original goal of a free and open commerce platform, Vortex Technologies allows a whole host of 3rd party providers, individual resellers, and various other applications to use their subspace communication system free of charge. Meaning that while there are a ton of official MercNet approved vendors and applications, there are just as many underground and DarkNet applications that can be found.
The Concord Corporations
Vortex Technologies
The Eldest and largest of all corporations in the Astraeus Galaxy, Vortex Technologies started as an industrial mining corporation from before the migration through the Epoch Gate. In the intervening Millenia, Vortex has risen to be a juggernaut of industry and commerce, with nearly every product created today either made by, or utilizing some part of, V-Tech.
Vortex creates everything from Nanite transistors to Terraforming systems, to military capital ships, to plant fertilizer. There is no place in the galaxy you go can without seeing something including V-Tech, and they have become as ubiquitous as life across the galaxy.
Boke Interstellar
Boke Interstellar is the largest ship manufacturer outside of Vortex itself. While Vortex provides mostly military ships for concord and other militia that can afford it, Boke markets almost exclusively to the civilian and privateer population. With a slogan of "Need a ship without going broke? No-one in the verse beats Boke!", they have a reputation for creating affordable, if not particularly elegant or powerful, space ships.
Era Arms
The only Vesk-led company in the Concord Board of Directors, Era Arms was recently elected to the board after the collapse of Dynasty Dynamics. Specializing in armaments ranging from hand-held laser pistols, vibro blades, and capital ship beam cannons, chances are any weapons you see are from Era Arms.
Preem
Preem, when beauty is a requirement and price is not an option, Preem is the place to shop. A luxury goods manufacturer, Preem is known as a symbol of wealth and status. Preem ships are the most luxurious, Preem Apartments are the most spacious, and Preem Clothing is the most expensive of anywhere in the galaxy.
Asap construction
The premier construction force in the galaxy, ASAP construction specializes in getting your projects off the ground FAST. Whether it's a new industrial complex, a series of low-income housing on an asteroid, or a zero-g Starport, ASAP will have your building up as soon as possible!
Petal Agricultural
Petal Agricultural came into existence shortly after the migration to Astraeus, positioning itself as the leading corporation for agricultural products. Maintaining the largest catalogue of flora across the galaxy, nearly any agricultural requirement can be met by Petal.
Burken Stockyard
Burken Stockyard, once owned by the brother of the founder of Petal Agricultural, is the premier destination for livestock and pets in the galaxy. Owing to their extensive patents on Biological engineering, livestock from Burken always produces the most meat for the least credits, and they can breed a pet to your exact specifications in the span of hours rather than eons.
Interstellar Shipping Syndicate
Nearly as widespread as Vortex itself, ISS has a singular mission and reputation. They transport any cargo, to any destination, guaranteed. ISS haulers are respected and accepted everywhere, and anyone that messes with them with swiftly find themselves facing whichever sovereign authority they happen to be near... You don't mess with peoples packages.
Infernal Litigation Inc.
Quickly rising to the board of directors within the last century, Infernal Litigation is a law firm with a firm stance on neutrality and contract litigation. With a slogan like "The Devil is in the Details!", it's no surprise that they keep a large staff of Devils on retainer to help with contract negotiations.
Hidden Nugget Mining
Taking up the mantle Vortex let slip in favor of MercNet, Hidden Nugget exploded onto the scene as the premier mining corporation across the galaxy. Maintaining the single largest planet-cracking fleet in the galaxy, Hidden Nugget operates with surprising autonomy in all quadrants of the galaxy save Hive and Imperium Space.
Roq Refineries
Perhaps the most mysterious corporation on the board, Roq Refineries is the main supplier of starship fuel across the start systems, including the creation of the specialized FTL fuel used by many different FTL drives. Operated by a coalition of Witchwyrds, little is known about the corporation other than they are a juggernaut when it comes to market share, and thus they have a place on the board of directors by right.
Faith Incorporated
Faith is profitable, at least that is the mantra behind Faith Incorporated. Maintaining a large retinue of priests and oracles from every faith known to the Galaxy. Their slogan is "With Faith Inc, miracles are only a Net-call away!"